Time for a new computer?

[JMJNet]

First do you have anti-virus other than McAfee or Norton in there?
Those 2 anti-virus will hog down your computer.
If you do, replace it with other anti-virus, the free AVAST or AVIRA or AVG are actually very good without hogging the computer.
If you don't have anything, download the boot-able version of Kaspersky and run it to clean the virus.

Download Firefox or Chrome instead of using IE.

The best free apps to clean the computer is called CCleaner (the first "C" used to be Cr*p).
You can run the free version and it will clean a whole lot of junk.

If you must buy a computer, I will suggest getting an old refurb or used computer powered by Xeon (Dell Precision T3500 or T5500).
It is going to cost you between $100 to $200 and some without Hard Disk but you can move the HD from your old computer to it.

Xeon is the base for i7 CPU and it is still the best. It will be good for long year with a very fast computer.

 

[daman]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
It's either on a sticker somewhere on the PC or the power supply, or it's imbedded in the registry.
With Win8, the key is usually tied to the account, so no need for keys.

I was looking for it on my other W7 laptop as I would like to do a clean reinstall of 7 and a see a sticker on the bottom says;

ASUS Microsoft; Product Key, xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

I assume that must be it?

and with my(this key) key I can re-down load w7?

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: daman
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
It's either on a sticker somewhere on the PC or the power supply, or it's imbedded in the registry.
With Win8, the key is usually tied to the account, so no need for keys.

I was looking for it on my other W7 laptop as I would like to do a clean reinstall of 7 and a see a sticker on the bottom says;

ASUS Microsoft; Product Key, xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

I assume that must be it?

and with my(this key) key I can re-down load w7?

Yup, that's it.
You can download win7 from MS even without the key. The key is needed after the installation. Just make sure you download the exact same edition of win7 you currently have th ekey for.
Once you install a fresh copy of win7, it will ask you for this product key. Simply enter it and the automatic verification should take care of the rest provided your computer is connected to the internet. If not, it can be activated over the phone with MS.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: umungus1122
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Didn't mention your OS. I'd suggest reading up over at TweakHound. At a minimum, you'll need to check your HD for problems, eliminate junk files, then defragment.

I don't know a thing about hotmail nor if you use an email client or web-based email. However with thunderbird, you must empty trash & "compact folders" to actually dump the trash. Odd that. Also the Inbox folder is usually all fragmented to high-heaven according to the frag report.

Task manager will easily show you which programs are consuming the most RAM and the most CPU time.

Well it came with Windows 8, might be 8.1 now? Where can I find it listed? As you can see I know little about it. I'm using Internet Explorer. Task manager shows IE is using everything when it's going slow. Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, Hotmail are all moving slowly as to be a problem. It was what I would consider VERY fast when it was newer, even though it's a low power chip (AMD E2). 0% fragmentation of the HD, junk files and temp files cleaned up, so it's either have somebody take a look at it for me, which would probably be over $100, or just get a new one in the $200-$300 or so range.
That explains it: Using IE + those three web email pages. No wonder you report 'slow email' issues. Yahoo web email ran slow on my previous machine. While it wasn't the fastest machine, the code used by Yahoo on their email page made the 'experience' far worse.

By using an email client, like outlook or thunderbird, you don't have to suffer with the junk, nor with IE, just to check your email. By setting up a few filters you can also have your incoming mail sorted into different folders. Very convienent.

My advice is to (1) ditch IE (I use FF), (2) use an ad blocker like Ublock Origin (my pref.), ad block +, ghostery, or something else. (3) Setup MS mail, outlook or T-bird.

 

[Californiabob]

as antsinmyeyes says, add an SSD.

first, run ccleaner and get rid of the junk,
defrag, and then calculate how much storage
you need and buy an SSD that matches.
you can use a disk copy to the new SSD or
reload windows on the new SSD and copy stuff over.

the ssd will be faster and in this case cheaper.